Beavers Bend State Park, Oklahoma

After leaving Tyler State Park in northeastern Texas, we headed for Oklahoma. We stopped at Beavers Bend State Park north of Broken Bow, Oklahoma. The park is located on Broken Bow Lake. This was our campsite.

We had a view of Mountain Fork Little River behind our campsite.

The park has several sections so we drove around and looked at all of them. This is one of the lakes islands in Broken Bow Lake. The water is usually up to the trees.

Bob and I both learned about traveling timber towns in the visitor center. As timber was depleted in one area, the timber company would move the entire town to the next area so workers wouldn't waste time traveling to work. The company (Dierks) we read about was in existence until it was bought out by Weyerhauser in the late 60s.

We only stayed at Beavers Bend one night. We didn't have phone or internet while we were there.

As we moved on, we happened by this monument on US 259. It is called Three Sticks Monument. The sticks represent air, land, and water.

This is a view of our rv from the monument.As we drove we planned to stop at an Army Corps of Engineers campground near Kerr Dam. Unfortunately, we missed a turn and when we realized we were going the wrong way, we were almost to Ft. Smith, Akansas. There is a military Fam-Camp located at Ft. Chaffee, so we stopped there for 2 nights.

Ft. Chaffee is a national guard base, now. In its heyday it was a huge, active base. Elvis got his first military haircut here.

Most of the old buildings aren't on the base proper. Many are in disrepair. Some have been reconditioned and are leased to local companies. Others are gone.

One portion of the base is a ghost town where the buildings have been torn down. All you can see in any direction are old chimneys and the burners used to heat the old buildings.During the time we were here, we did 32 geocaches. We finally hit our 800th cache! Can 1000 be far behind?

We are now caught up with our travels!!!! Tomorrow morning we leave for Siloam Springs, Arkansas. We will be there until the 15th, then we will head for home.